RR bottled yet another chase this season, this time by the barest margin of one run. Their finishers have struggled throughout the season, but this time, they came so close to winning the match from a losing position, but couldn’t cross the line. Losing the match by 1 run will hurt RR fans a lot as it is often said so close yet so far. Let’s look at the reasons for RR‘s defeat.
Poor bowling strategies
RR bowlers weren’t up to the mark today. The pitch was a bit slower, but they didn’t use it wisely. They didn’t mix their pace variations much. This became easier for the batters to hit the ball through the line.
They also didn’t have a proper plan to dismiss the batters. They didn’t use bouncers against Andre Russell. They went for yorkers, but landed as full tosses and got smashed by the Caribbean beast.
They could have kept one over of Hasaranga in the death instead of Mahesh Theekshana. Hasaranga is a wrist spinner, and his googlies would have troubled Russell. They brought Theekshana for the 18th over, and he got smacked for 23 runs.
Akash Madwal came to bowl the last over and gave 22 runs. These two overs are the turning point in the match. KKR went from 149/3 in 17 overs to 206/4 in 20 overs. 57 runs were scored in the last 3 overs.
Batting collapse
While chasing the huge target of 207, RR lost the wickets of Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Krunal Rathore in the first 2 overs. They were 8/2 in 2 overs. Jaiswal and Captain Riyan Parag built a partnership from there. Jasiwal lost his wicket to Moen Ali when the score went to 66 in 7 overs.
Varun Chakravarthy came to bowl the 8th over. He dismissed Dhruv Jurel and Wanindu Hasaranga for ducks in the 3rd and 5th balls of the over. This put RR on the back foot again. They were reduced to 73/5 in 8 overs. Riyan Parag again built a partnership with Hetmyer.
Game-changing over
RR scored 102 runs for 5 wickets after the end of the 12th over. Moeen Ali took the ball in his hands. Shimron Hetmyer scored a single on the first ball. Riyan Parag smashed the next 5 deliveries to sixes. This over allowed RR to come back into the game.
Riyan Parag smashed one more six in the next over of Varun Chakravarthy. Hetmyer smashed one in the next over against his fellow countryman Sunil Narine. RR looked well in control of the chase. But both Riyan and Hetmyer lost their wickets at the wrong time.
Harshit Rana dismissed Hetmyer with a well-directed bouncer into his body line. Hetmyer edged it and landed in the hands of Sunil Narine in the 16th over ( Hetmyer 29 runs off 23 balls ). Harshit Rana came back in the 18th over and bowled a slower one wide outside the off-stump. Riyan Parag wanted to smash it over the long on, but couldn’t middle it and found the hands of Vaibhav Arora. ( Parag, 95 runs off 45 balls )
Last over drama
Vaibhav Arora came to bowl the last over. At one stage. RR required 19 runs off 4 balls. Then Shubam Dubey smashed 6,4,6 of the three balls. Now, RR needed 3 off 1 ball to win. Vaibhav Arora nailed the yorker this time, and Dubey could only take the single on that ball. They rushed for the double, but couldn’t complete it. Archer was run out at the non-striker’s end.
Also Read:Â KKR vs RR: KKR Hold Nerve To Defeat RR By 1 Run; Riyan Parag’s Knock In Vain